Design

If you’re the kind of person who delights in debating the relative merits of font serifs or reminiscing about the heyday of subway sign design then you may have a new place to congregate with the like-minded. The founders of Greenpoint-based design firm Order recently opened Standards Manual– to their knowledge New York’s only specialty graphic design bookstore.

Co//Modified: A Showcase of Design ArtistsOpening Monday October 3 at The Living Gallery, 7 pm to 10 pm. One night only.

In this one-night-only show curated by Mia Schachter, eight artists who “straddle the line of intention between utilitarian design and art” will make their way to Bushwick’s The Living Gallery to show their work. Many of these artists make work that they predominantly try to sell as useful objects, like hyperstylized papier-mâché percussion instruments, ceramic mugs or pots, and embroidery. This show seeks to lay their salesperson spirit to rest momentarily so they can merely show off their creations as art. But if you’d like to go home with a piece or two, you’ll be able to do so as well.

On Thursday evening, a group of 10 or 15 people descended into a mysterious basement on Bed-Stuy’s Myrtle Avenue. If not for the beats of FKA Twigs that floated up the dark staircase, you might have missed it completely. The space, which lies below an apartment and has been renovated into an art space called TT Gallery, carries a musty scent and feels otherworldly. Some of the floor is still dirt, the intricate roof panels and stone walls look like something out of a Final Fantasy realm. Only, the characters of this world weren’t there to adventure amongst monsters, but to strut their stuff. This was the setting for Iranian-born, Montreal-based designer and artist Pedram Karimi‘s SS17 show.

In this show, artist Raque Ford takes on the character of Georgia Brown, a “temptress” figure from the 1940s film and Broadway musical Cabin in the Sky. The show made history as the first production to feature an entirely African-American cast, but the creators were (shocking!) all white. Using a variety of techniques, including plexiglass sculpture and a zine of handwritten letters that attendees can take home with them, Ford will reexamine and rewrite the narrative of Georgia Brown through a rigorous and contemporary lens.

You’re not sick of holiday shopping and pop-ups yet, are you? What’s that? You just started on your naughty & nice list? Then we’ve got another ephemeral place you should hit up ASAP to find those singular last-minute gifts to make your whole crew feel special and maybe even worldly.

If there’s anything to say about Frieze that speaks to the massive annual art fair as a whole is that it’s wholly impossible to see everything. Last year, there were 190 participating art dealers from all over the globe. And that’s just at Frieze alone. What’s more the art fair brings so many art people into the city and out of their studios in “far-flung” neighborhoods to Manhattan, that several satellite festivities coincide with the event in places other than the Frieze tent. So take your pick and get ready for two parts shmoozing and feigning interest and one part legitimate enthrallment!

You’d have to be living under a rock to be surprised to hear Bushwick is undergoing some explosive changes. It feels like streetscapes here are transforming faster than anywhere else in the city and many longtime residents feel they’re losing grip on their neighborhood. But Bushwick is in a strange limbo right now. While the northeast corner is bubbling over with ritzy new restaurants, bars, clothing stores, and art galleries, all increasingly patronized by German tourists and chiseled young bro dudes with man buns, for now at least the southern section closer to the graveyard has resisted these striking demographic shifts and skyrocketing rents. “We need to make moves now,” explained Drew Vanderburg, a resident of Bushwick and a graduate student at Parsons in the Design and Urban Ecologies program.

Broke art collectors don’t exist, and broke artists can only exist for so long. Enter: Brooklyn Community Supported Art + Design (CSA+D). Putting a twist on the idea of Community Supported Agriculture, where subscribers get a weekly supply of fruits and veggies from a farm or community garden, CSA+D is a program where shareholders purchase stocks in local artists in exchange for pieces of art and design.

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About B + B

Bedford + Bowery is where downtown Manhattan and north Brooklyn intersect. Produced by NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute in collaboration with New York magazine, B + B covers the East Village, Lower East Side, Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick, and beyond. Want to contribute? Send a tip? E-mail the editor.